- My Collection Of Found Objects -
Six unique mixed media artist books, hand bound and displayed above a collection of found objects within the Old Library space at Chelsea College of Arts. Each book is made using found materials and objects, collaged, hand embroidered, pressed and taped together to produce a deeply intimate collection of one of a kind artist books.
The Trip
- The Trip - 2025
Mixed media artist book
54 pages
244 x 168 x 40 mm
By Tif Harvey
Materials: Sketch book, found objects from Japan and tape.
£200
In December of 2024 I visited Japan with my housemates and friends for two weeks, travelling around Tokyo, Osaka and Hakone with a blank sketch book. While on the trip I gathered any and all found objects I came across, using each sticker, card, receipt and Polaroid to document every significant moment I wished to remember. Each day I would look back at what I had collected and carefully stick them onto the pages, curating a book of treasured memories.
Carved Stone
- Carved Stone - 2025
Mixed media artist book
44 pages
445 x 290 x 14 mm
By Tif Harvey
Materials: Stone block prints, pages from ‘Country Life Picture Book of Ireland’, newsprint paper, tracing paper, white thread, dried flowers and masking tape.
SOLD
In August of 2023 I was the first of my housemates to move into our new home in Harringay Green Lanes. It was on the second day, I was exploring our garden looking for rocks to line the bottom of my plant pots, when I found this small carved stone discarded amongst the dirt. Who had this stone once belonged to? Who had carved it with such care? And why had it been left here? I was fascinated by this mysterious object and captured by its unique beauty. So for years this carved stone sat on my bedside table, a vessel for those cherished memories. A physical reminder of my excitement during those first weeks, as we settled into our new home.
Conversations On Botany
- Conversations On Botany - 2025
Mixed media artist book
62 pages
250 x 178 x 28 mm
By Tif Harvey
Materials: Etching prints, etching plates, pressed flowers, wax paper, woven fabric, birch tree bark, white thread, ‘Conversations on Botany’, ‘Animal Life’ magazines 1962 to 1963, masking tape, ‘Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles’, ‘The Northern Highlands’ and tape.
£200
Inspired by my work in Unit 10’s situations I began collaging many pages from found books, determined to honour each book’s original content while creating something new with their imagery. The title of this artist book was taken from a book I was gifted for my 22nd birthday, the vintage prints and faded pages providing beautiful and unique collaging material. By collaging together images, texts and papers from a few different found books including:
‘Animal Life magazine 1962-1963’, ‘The Northern Highlands, 1970’, ‘Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles, 1922’, ‘Conversations On Botany, 1841’
I crafted a new artist book, highlighting the stunning vintage imagery with white thread, textured papers and real bark taken from a birch tree outside of my home.
Wildflowers
- Wildflowers - 2025
Mixed media artist book
130 pages
178 x 145 x 32 mm
By Tif Harvey
Materials: ‘The Observer’s Book of Wildflowers’, red thread, tea cards, pressed flowers, cyanotype prints and masking tape.
SOLD
Bought for £2 in an Oxfam near my parent’s home, The Observers Book Of Wildflowers became a found object I was determined to fill with as many wildflowers as I could. The Observers Books was a series of pocket-sized guides covering a range of diverse topics from common fungi and dogs to British birds and music. This search for wildflowers encouraged me to travel to local parks and natural landscapes in search of varying wildflowers, where I closely examined, identified and pressed each flower onto its associated page. With help from my friends and family I collected 33 flowers now seen within this artist book, each one preserving a memory of where, when and who I was with at the time of its discovery. Through this process I have reimagined the discarded book with new real wildflowers, expanding the book's purpose beyond its original design, to become a documentation of not only flowers but also memories.
British Countryside In Colour
- British Countryside in Colour - 2025
Mixed media artist book
38 pages
381 x 252 x 18 mm
By Tif Harvey
Materials: Red thread, pressed flowers, ‘British Countryside In Colour’, ‘Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles’, sunflower oil, pencil on tracing paper, ‘Animal Life’ magazines 1962 to 1963, ‘The Northern Highlands’ and tape.
£200
Tucked away off the high street in Brixton is a quaint second-hand book shop called Bookmongers. It was here I found the books ‘British Countryside in Colour’ and ‘Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles‘ the two primary collaging materials of this, the fifth artist book in this series. With ‘CA 02776’ red thread I stitched delicate patterns into many pages, using the focal points within each image as anchors for the threads to create visual links between the black and white photography and other found objects such as pressed flowers, magazine cut outs, tree bark and layered textiles.
The Bed
- The Bed - 2025
Mixed media artist book
312 pages
342 x 228 x 126 mm
By Tif Harvey
Materials: Found objects, inkjet prints, tape, tracing paper and ‘The Bed or the Clinophile’s Vase Mecum’.
£250
Since I was very little I have always collected found objects as vessels for significant memories, decorating my bedroom with these objects until the space becomes a visual expression of my life. This artist book depicts every found object I had collected and used to decorate my bedroom in my current home. Each cherished object holding its own story and personal significance with the memories of where and when I found it embedded into its essence.
Some of the objects seen in ‘The Bed’ can also be seen in the cases beneath the six artist books, with a few accompanied by informative placards describing the personal significance of that found object.
The Bed is an attempt to immerse the viewer into my bedroom, allowing them to step into my personal space and experience the significant moments of my life and identity.
This is a book of truth, an exposé of my most cherished moments wrestled into one volume, bursting at the seams with memories.
"To me the medium of artist books is extremely exciting, its huge range of materials and formats can allow for a variety of designs from small reproducible publications to unique one-off artworks. However, I particularly enjoy experimenting with the physical interactions required by the medium, as a viewer is often required to turn the pages to observe the whole artwork. By studying this interaction an artist can incorporate texture into the pages, crafting the viewer’s experience and enhancing the book's concepts by emphasising its themes with textured materials and careful embroidery."
With this series ‘My Collection of Found Objects’ Tif has crafted six interactive artist books, each acting like abstract scrapbooks or photo-albums, displaying, and archiving a very personal collection of significant memories, through the careful documentation of their found objects.
This series of unique artist books describes how we use physical materials to document and record our lives, curating our memories through keepsakes and trinkets. The found objects within the books are vessels for those moments Tif wishes to remember, memories they want to cherish, and so by collaging them into these handcrafted books they have preserved those memories within this intimate and interactive collection.